Carl Wolmar Jakob Freiherr von Uexküll (born 19 August 1944) is a writer, lecturer, philanthropist, activist and former politician. He served as a

member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

from 1987 to 1989 representing the

German Green Party Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (fo ...

. In 1980, Uexküll founded the

Right Livelihood Award The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob v ...

, and in 2006, he co-founded the World Future Council. Born in Sweden, he holds both

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

and German citizenship, and is a resident of the United Kingdom.

Biography

The son of Gustav Adolf Gösta Baron von Uexküll and Ewa Lewerentz, Jakob von Uexküll was born in

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

of a noble Baltic German family that left

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. After studying in Sweden and Germany, he won a scholarship to

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

, graduating in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. His grandfather Jakob von Uexküll was a biologist and the founder of the study of

biosemiotics Biosemiotics (from the Greek βίος ''bios'', "life" and σημειωτικός ''sēmeiōtikos'', "observant of signs") is a field of semiotics and biology that studies the prelinguistic meaning-making, biological interpretation processes, p ...

. His maternal grandfather was renowned Swedish architect

Sigurd Lewerentz Sigurd Lewerentz (29 July 1885 – 29 December 1975) was a Swedish architect. Biography Lewerentz was born at Sandö in the parish of Bjärtrå in Västernorrland County, Sweden. He was the son of Gustaf Adolf Lewerentz and Hedvig Mathild ...

. Uexküll is married and has three children. He lives with his family in London.

Right Livelihood Award

The Right Livelihood Award evolved from von Uexküll's opinion that the Nobel Prizes were relatively narrow in scope and usually recognised the work of citizens in

industrialised countries A developed country (or industrialized country, high-income country, more economically developed country (MEDC), advanced country) is a sovereign state that has a high quality of life, developed economy and advanced technological infrastruct ...

. Uexküll first approached the Nobel Foundation with the suggestion that it establish two new awards, one for ecology and one relevant to the lives of the poor majority of the world's population. He offered to contribute financially but his proposal was turned down. Uexküll then created the Right Livelihood Award and provided an initial

endowment Endowment most often refers to: *A term for human penis size It may also refer to: Finance *Financial endowment, pertaining to funds or property donated to institutions or individuals (e.g., college endowment) *Endowment mortgage, a mortgage to b ...

by selling his collection of postage stamps for US$1 million; the awards have subsequently attracted additional funding from private individuals enabling the donation of annual prizes worth 150,000

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

. In 1980, the first Right Livelihood Awards were bestowed in a rented hall. Five years later, the invitation to present them in the

Riksdag The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...

(Swedish parliament) in Stockholm followed. Since 2005 his nephew Ole von Uexküll has taken over the management of the Right Livelihood Award.

Activism

In Germany,

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...

has several times nominated Jakob von Uexküll in

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

to the European Parliament. As a

(1987–89), he served on the Political Affairs Committee and the Science and Technology Committee. He was also a member of the Delegation for Relations with the Supreme Soviet of the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

and the Baltic Intergroup. Uexküll is co-founder of

the Other Economic Summit The Other Economic Summit (TOES) was a counter-summit to the annual G7 summits, first held in 1984 in London. It included diverse groups of economists, greens and community activists. TOES eventually became an umbrella term and similar meetings ...

(1984), and founder of the Estonian Renaissance Award (1993). He is a patron of

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split with ...

International, member of the Council of Governance of Transparency International, and of the Global Commission to Fund the United Nations. He served on the board of

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

, Germany, and the New Economics Foundation, London. He was also a member of the UNESCO Commission on Human Duties and Responsibilities. Uexküll lectures on environment, justice and peace issues. He is also a philatelist with publications including ''The Early Postal History of Saudi Arabia'' (London, 2001). In 2007, Uexküll founded the World Future Council.

Honours and prizes

* Officer's Cross of the Order Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2009) *

Erich Fromm Prize The Erich Fromm Prize (german: Erich-Fromm-Preis) is a German prize bestowed upon people who have advanced Humanism through their scientific, social, sociopolitical or journalistic engagement. The prize is named after Erich Fromm, a Jewish German-A ...

in Stuttgart, Germany (2008) * Great Binding Prize for Environmental Protection, Liechtenstein (2006) * ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine European Heroes Award (2005) * Third Class

Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana The Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana ( et, Maarjamaa Risti teenetemärk, sometimes translated as the Order of the Cross of St. Mary's Land) was instituted by the President of Estonia, Lennart Meri, on 16 May 1995 to honour the independence of ...

, Estonia (2001) * Future Research Prize, Salzburg (1999) * Bios Prize, St. Petersburg (1998) * Patron, International Student Week in Ilmenau (ISWI) 2015 *

Illis quorum ''Illis quorum'' (''Illis quorum meruere labores'') (English: "For Those Whose Labors Have Deserved It"), is a gold medal awarded for outstanding contributions to Swedish culture, science or society. The award was introduced in 1784 by King Gust ...

(2014)

References

External links

''Right Livelihood Award: The Founder''
– Jakob von Uexküll *Plon, Ulla (2 October 2005)

''Time''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Uexkull, Jakob Von 1944 births Living people People from Uppsala Swedish people of Baltic German descent Swedish philatelists Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Alliance 90/The Greens MEPs Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 3rd Class Recipients of the Illis quorum